What began as a seasonal corporate gesture ultimately led Jeff Small to bring deep-dish pizza to Fredericksburg.
“My girlfriend works for a water treatment company, and one of their clients in Chicago every year for Christmas would send us these Lou Malnati’s frozen pizzas,” Small recalled. “And we loved them.”
The couple’s fondness for the distinctive pan pies laden with cheese, toppings and tomato sauce only deepened with annual weekend trips to the Windy City. And when Small purchased Caroline Street mainstay Sammy T’s in March 2023, he spied an opportunity to nab a slice of a yet-untouched market locally.
“I was like we’ve got some really good bakers here, some really good chefs,” Small said. “No one else is selling it. Let’s see if we can put this together.”
Last summer, he flew one of his chefs out to Chicago for a business trip involving some diligent, if delicious, research.
“We spent about a day and a half gorging on all the different brands out in Chicago,” Small said of an itinerary that included traditional spots such as Pequod’s, Giordano’s and Lou Malnati’s. “We came back, he nailed the recipe.”
When YMMAS Pizza opens Oct. 2 at Sammy T’s side entrance on Hanover Street, Small is hopeful that local diners won’t mind dishing out a little dough in exchange for authenticity. Not long into the planning process, he realized that he couldn’t compete with local slice shops on cost without sacrificing either the quality or quantity of ingredients.
“I didn’t want to say, ‘I can get the price down if I use a little less cheese or a lesser quality of cheese,’” he said. “I didn’t want to say I could get the price down if I don’t use the San Marzano tomatoes. I could get the price down if I didn’t want to use a couple other ingredients.
A Chicago deep dish pizza is shown topped with Parmesan cheese and basil. (Photo by Joey LoMonaco)
“So let’s do it this way. Let’s be the Morton’s [Steakhouse]. Let’s be the high end. We’ll use the best ingredients, we won’t skimp, and let’s cross our fingers we’re putting out a five-star Chicago pizza.”
YMMAS’ dough features a blend of all-purpose and bread flours to achieve a consistency that’s at once bready and flaky. At a recent tasting, pans of all three sizes were stacked high atop a convection oven designed specifically for deep-dish pizzas, which bake for approximately 35 minutes at 350 degrees.
Upon opening, YMMAS will offer three pizzas — cheese, veggie and meats — in individual (7”, feeds two), small (11”, feeds 2-4) and large (14”, feeds 4-6). The specialty pies will only be available in the 14” size.
Carryout orders can be placed on YMMAS’ website (with pre-orders accepted starting Sept. 30), and both carryout and deliveries will be available through DoorDash.
Small settled on a name for his new venture only after a bit of reflection. YMMAS is Sammy (in honor of Sammy T’s) spelled backward, an observation he attributed to graphic designer Byron Glazer.
Small acknowledged that customers will be the ultimate judge of his product, but he already knows they’ll be satisfied in one sense of the word.
“You’re going to get filled up when you eat it,” he said. “I can have a slice, and I’ll be full. I can have two slices, and I’m not going to have to eat for 15-20 hours.”
